Welcome to the NAIFA Solution Center

Your mission is to grow your business. Our mission is to support every step in your career lifecycle. We designed the Solution Center for insurance and financial advisors that are in the early years of building their business. Investing in your education, earning professional designations and building your network consistently result in advisors that retain higher net-worth clients and earn substantially higher incomes (additionally, they enjoy the journey and have more fun!)

Most advisors agree that they’d like to get in front of more qualified referrals.

The solution is simple — become a referral magnet.

In my more than 20 years of working with top producers, I’ve discovered eight advisor marketing strategies that will guarantee your advisory business a steady stream of qualified referrals.

1. Show You Truly Care The saying, "clients don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" is the foundation to an effective advisor marketing and referral-building strategy. When clients know you truly care about them, they naturally feel compelled to tell others about you. It's all about building deep relationships that stand the test of time. Accomplishing this level of trust and connection requires taking the time to make a telephone call, send a birthday card, or set up a breakfast or luncheon.

Part of any advisor marketing plan should include a plan to promote and increase qualified referrals. Every serious athlete understands what it feels like to be "in the zone." Similarly, if you want more referrals you need to get into the "referability zone.” To get into the zone, you need to make sure your ideal clients and potential referral partners associate you with the “sound bites” of your message. If you provide insurance solutions to small business owners, for example, you want clients and prospects to think of you, and refer you, whenever they hear someone say "liquidity," "buy/sell," or any other phrase that describes your services or solutions. For this reason, it is essential to send consistent, vivid messages that resonate with your clients and prospects. You'll know you are in the "referability zone" when a prospect calls and says, "Jerry said I needed to call you because I need help funding my buy/sell agreement."

3. Under Promise and Over Deliver

A financial advisor recently shared that he was using a software program that I was interested in using. When I asked him about the program, he shared in front of a half a dozen other advisors that he felt they had over promised and under delivered. He was not happy. All I could do was wonder how many potential referrals this company had lost because they had under delivered. Your advisor marketing strategy must focus on exceeding expectations and take all necessary steps to ensure you under promise and over deliver.

4. How Can I Serve You?

When your entire advisor marketing plan is focused on serving your clients in every possible way, the results include lifelong clients who refer others to you. A business owner who just sold his company for $30 million and relocated to a new state met two advisors to determine which of them would manage his money. The first advisor had better products and returns than the second. The second asked his wife what she would like and she shared she preferred shopping over dealing with the finances. The second advisor had a relationship manager who took her shopping. Guess who got the business? This strategy also works effectively with prospects, centers of influence, and referral partners. So ask away and then deliver!

5. Create Reciprocal Referral Partnerships

This is one of the easiest and most profitable advisor marketing strategies for increasing referrals. Identify 12 to 24 referral partners in different industries who are also prospecting for your ideal client. Once you identify the potential partner, interview two or three in that industry. The goal is to find partners who understand the power of referrals and also agree to cross refer clients. The reason you choose five or ten other small businesses is because some will be better reciprocal partners than others. You want to find the one or two who are as committed to creating a small business marketing strategy that has a consistent flow of qualified referrals.

6. Automate Your Referral Marketing Strategy

One of the biggest challenges to getting referrals is constantly completing activities that allow you to attract massive referrals. For this reason, automation is essential. We have consistently seen results from 30 percent to 150 percent increase in business simply by automating and their referral marketing. The best strategy includes three relationships touches to each referral touch.

Want to know how you can do this? Or what other referral strategies you can use to dramatically grow your business? Come to the NAIFA-Iowa Sales Caravan and find out!

Annette Bau is a CFPÒ practitioner and managing member of an investment advisory firm. She has been a top producer for over 20 years working extensively with affluent women and business owners. She is the founder of Advisor Marketing Practices.com, and MillionaireSeries.com. Her expertise is increasing retention, referrals and repeat business through relationship marketing.

Annette has authored four books and various products including The Million Dollar Marketing System, The 7 Principles for becoming a Millionaire for Life, and her latest book 101 Insider Secrets for Marketing to Affluent Women. Read her blog at http://AnnetteBau.com and catch her insight at http://YouTube.com/MillionaireSeriesTV.